How Police Use Social Media

Twitter and Facebook say they are cutting off bulk data access to a firm that scans vast amounts of public social media posts. Critics say the service enables police to conduct invasive surveillance. Others say that social media is a useful tool in investigating crimes. Listen to hear more about this controversy, which includes the issue of protecting civil rights and law enforcement’s use of commercial products.

Related Current Events

After a shooting in San Bernadino, California, a controversy has erupted around national security and data privacy. A federal judge has ordered the technology company Apple to access private data on the shooter’s cell phone. Apple has refused to comply. While the government feels that accessing this data is crucial for national security, Apple believes that doing so would be an invasion of privacy. The results of the case could impact the ways that phones are designed in the future. Listen to the story and debate with your students the issue of personal privacy versus national security.

Update: The FBI dropped its case against Apple to require them to unlock the iphone because it was able to use a third party to access the data on the phone.

The provision of the Patriot Act that allowed the government to conduct massive phone surveillance has expired. The National Security Agency can no longer conduct bulk surveillance. In its place, Congress passed the USA Freedom Act, which allows for limited surveillance. Politicians in both the Democratic and Republican parties felt that this phone surveillance needed limits but there was a showdown over how far the changes should go. Listen to learn how this standoff came to an end and changed the way the government conducts surveillance.

Language Challenge Level

These levels of listening complexity can help teachers choose stories for their students. The levels do not relate to the content of the story, but to the complexity of the vocabulary, sentence structure and language in the audio story.

NOTE: Listenwise stories are intended for students in grades 5-12 and for English learners with intermediate language skills or higher.

Low

These stories are easier to understand and are a good starting point for everyone.

Medium

These stories have an average language challenge for students and can be scaffolded for English learners.

High

These stories have challenging vocabulary and complex language structure.